From the Publisher: Nineteen Seventy-Nine takes place in a small fishing town called Musselburgh, situated on the east coast of Scotland. It’s about a young girl who is very naïve yet incredibly self-aware in the year that changed her life forever—an evocative, moving, and at times hilarious true-life story about growing up gay in a small town, finding out you’re adopted, and losing your father at the age of 14. Always an outsider, the Rhona of 1979 was desperate to fit in at any cost, and here lies the bittersweet humor. At the heart of the book is the Clubhouse, a place that symbolizes all that is normal, happy, and secure. Sons with their fathers; 15-year-old boys with their girlfriends for their first underage drink. Wives with their husbands for the Christmas disco. And behind the club, outside, Rhona and her friends are smoking, fighting, kissing, and drinking. In this darkly funny and deeply biographical first book, Rhona Cameron takes us back to a year when everything seemed to change. A new British government came to power, the 1980s were approaching, and at times life felt so precarious that it really looked like she and her family might never make it through the next year, let alone the next decade.

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About the Author: Rhona Cameron lives alone in a small, overpriced flat surrounded by building work. Having forgotten the ’80s, due to high alcohol consumption, she began her career as a comedian after winning the Channel 4 competition “So You Think You’re Funny?” at the 1992 Edinburgh Festival.

She wrote and starred in the sitcom Rhona for BBC2 and has appeared on many shows, such as Graham Norton and Have I Got News For You.

Rhona’s real rise to fame came when she argued with Nigel Benn and Darren Day on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! and delivered the now famous “Sometimes...” speech, for which she received a 2003 “TV Moments of the Year” award. She has also appeared in the West End in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Vagina Monologues.

Rhona is 37 and plays right back for Camden women’s football team.

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By the Same Author: The Naked Drinking Club (2007).

There is something of Dickens in this memoir. John Jack Day was born in England and reared for a few years in a famous orphanage, there. When he was ten, he was put on a boat and sent across the rough northern Atlantic to Canada. He worked for the next eight years for a man he hated. A large, strong boy, when he was 18 he left the farm and struck out on his own. Eventually he made his way to central Illinois and the booming railroad industry. Day writes candidly of his wives, his lovers, his failures, his temper, and the losses along the way. About the Author: John Jack Day had a heart attack at 60, that slowed him down a bit, though it never stopped him. He continued to work on the railroad until he retired, and then he worked at his friendships, always a willing help in times of trouble. This book arrived two weeks before his death at nearly 97 and he spent those two weeks showing his work to the many friends who made their way to his side.

The incredible journey of the author, Taylor Hamilton, digs into the myth and truth of adoption the way it was in her life. Unseen adoption documents (normally sealed) are included in this dynamic, chatty, roller-coaster ride. From the small town where she grew up to long roads and parts previously unknown, the author is honest and open about her journey. This is a must read for those who are wandering in their spiritual faith, wondering if anyone out there “understands” and even wondering if they might be going crazy as life events unfold in strange and unexplainable ways. When you question your own sanity or abilities to know what’s best for you, pick up this book and find someone who absolutely understands and found her path “back home.” You will laugh, be inspired, on the edge of your seat and maybe you will relate. One part of this journey will, without doubt, give you the creeps. It is for you this book is written. Firsthand insight into what stalking really is, how it felt and what could and could not be done about it. Chilling, encouraging, sometimes laughable and always intriguing.

Devy Bruch, adopted in the late 1930s from the infamous Tennessee Children’s Home Society, has lived a life of both privilege and despair. She searched for her biological family for the first seven decades of her life. In 1937, as an infant, she was stolen from her mother by the infamous Georgia Tann, bundled up, and sold to a wealthy couple from Pennsylvania. In her youth, Devy attended exclusive private schools, spent weekends at the Naval Academy, and experienced a debutante season befitting a fine upbringing. Then, as a young woman, she was plunged into deep despair when her husband left her with four young children and no income. She survived through her inner strength, determination, and spirituality. At the age of seventy-one, Devy made the decision to investigate her adoption and found that she had a sister that destiny had denied her for decades. She learned of the heinous truth of her origins “that of a small, sickly baby stolen from her birth mother and sold for profit during the depression.” Now life has brought her full circle to enjoy both her own family and the birth family she finally discovered late in life.

During the Vietnam War, Brian Howard Settles flew nearly two hundred combat missions in a jet fighter as he struggled with feelings of isolation from his convictions, personal inadequacy, and inner questions of his loyalty to a nation from which he felt alienated. Settles grapples with his hypocrisy in selling out on himself and his marriage in exchange for filling his emotional neediness with the glorified machismo of being a fighter pilot. In his guts and glory story, this retired airline captain discloses the awful truth of his guilt laden mania for booze, broads, and battle, sharing the intense, unshakeable emotional cost that lives in the isolation and deprivation that is war. The raw confession of his inner conflict and self-doubt is stirring, preventing No Reason for Dying from becoming a typical Vietnam War memoir. Rather, it’s the surrender of himself; weaving a ruthlessly honest story of one man’s private torment to survive incredible odds in search of his honor and dignity. About the Author: Brian Howard Settles grew up in Muncie, IN. At Ball State University, he was a Distinguished Military Graduate of the Air Force ROTC program. Graduating in 1966 with a Secondary Education degree in Spanish, he accepted his Officer’s commission into U. S. Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training at Laredo Air Force Base, Texas. He flew nearly two hundred combat missions in Vietnam before going on to earn his Master’s degree in International Relations at the University of Southern California. After returning to civilian life, he enjoyed a thirty-year career as an airline pilot before retiring as a Boeing 757 Captain. During airline furloughs and bankruptcies, he served as a college counselor, a cab driver, and eventually, after retirement, was selected as Chair and Assistant Professor of Airway Science at Delaware State University. Today he is an adjunct professor at Atlanta’s Mercer University. He lives with his wife Phyllis Ann in south Georgia, where he enjoys reading, fishing, writing, and playing with his grandchildren.

When children kill, apparently without reason or remorse, the public and media asks “Why?” This rare interview with a parent killer is the true story of Gregory Mox, who is serving a life sentence for murdering his adoptive parents by bludgeoning them to death and setting their bodies on fire. The author allows her subject to tell his story in his own words ... and finds comparisons between Gregory Mox and dozens of other children who have killed their parents—as well as with serial killers—with astounding conclusions.

Nobody Puts Crack Baby in a Corner chronicles the life and times of Author Dava Greely. Born in Oakland, CA, in the 1980s to drug-addicted parents, she was abandoned by them very early on and entered the foster care system as an infant. She was taken into the home of a nice, young, middle-class family in a safer part of the Bay Area, and they formed an incredible bond that would last a lifetime. In what seems to be the beginning of a Hollywood fairy tale where the African American child is embraced by a Caucasian family and whisked off to safety and a happy ending, what’s the catch? Growing up as a black child in a white family, she struggled with understanding and accepting who she was—historically, socially, and personally. The task of creating a life that would suit who she desired to be was made very difficult by the confusion she felt as she tried to figure out her place in the world, if there was a place for her at all. As much as her abandonment issues filled her with the desire to be accepted and integrated with the people around her, she refused to let her core be changed. Acceptance was not worth the sacrifice of who she was designed to be—she wasn’t going to be compartmentalized and labeled—she was just too stubborn to be confined to the corner.

From the Dust Jacket: “I found it difficult to understand when other children talked of having nightmares in their sleep. For me sleep was the only time when I felt truly safe. The nightmares I dreaded were always waiting for me when I awoke.”

Michael Seed should have received what every child deserves: love, care and attention, and the chance to be just what he was—an innocent young boy. Instead, from as far back as he can remember, Michael’s childhood was nothing but a daily ordeal. His fight for survival against a brutal and emotionally deranged father threatened to destroy his childish innocence and break his potent young spirit.

He was starved, tortured, and forced to become a sex slave to his father at the age of five, and after his mother’s horrific suicide, fell victim to constant and terrible bullying at school. Grandparents, who might have offered protection and love, added to his misery and bruises with callous and calculated cruelty and for years he lived with the constant idea of his own suicide.

Yet despite this appalling start in life Michael refused to surrender, and with incredible resilience and determination grew up to become hugely successful and influential in both the church and the secular world.

After a lifetime of silence, he now feels able to tell a story that, although shockingly painful, is a blazing testament to one human’s raw courage, and his remarkable ability to finally triumph over the horrors of a stolen childhood.

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About the Author: After his horrifying start in life, Michael Seed, a friar priest of the Franciscan order, went on to achieve three university degrees and two doctorates, and has served at Westminster Cathedral for 23 years as Secretary for Ecumenical Affairs under the late Cardinal Basil Hume and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor.

Known as the priest to the stars, he is an established and familiar figure in Parliament and a regular visitor to Downing Street, having been on friendly terms with the last six Prime Ministers. He is also equally at home in the Vatican, the City, Buckingham Palace and in the world of show business, and is a leading supporter of many charities, including The Passage, the London centre for the homeless.

His conversion to Catholicism of Ann Widdecombe, John Gummer and the outrageous Alan Clark made him “the celebrity priest of the century,” according to The Times.

In 2004 Pope John Paul Il awarded him the highest Vatican award—the gold cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontificia for his contribution to international ecumenical and inter faith affairs.

He is also a well known speaker, newspaper columnist and the author of several books.

From the Back Cover: John Robinson had the worst possible start in life. Taken into care at four months old, he was left in abusive foster homes for most of his childhood.

At fourteen he was sent to a detention centre for arson. Gravitating towards a life of crime, he moved from borstal to the streets to psychiatric hospital, a scarred, tattooed, broken and angry young man.

Yet God had plans for John. Today he runs the Eden bus ministry: frontline youth buses which travel the toughest parts of Manchester with the gospel. The teams befriend young people and sometimes accompany them to court.

“My passion is, and I pray always will be, for those who feel downtrodden, hurt and rejected,” says John Robinson. “They feel like scum, and wake up each day with nothing and no one. I know exactly what that feels like.”

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About the Author: John Robinson is married to Gillian, an ordained minister in the Church of England. They have two daughters, Leah and Natalie.

From the Dust Jacket: WHAT’S YOUR NAME?

WHERE WERE YOU BORN?

WHAT IS YOUR DATE OF BIRTH?

Simple questions that we are asked throughout our lives—put what if you don’t know the answers?

Kate Adie uncovers the extraordinary, moving and inspiring stories of foundlings—without mother or father, any knowledge of who they might be, or even a name to call their own.

With a curiosity inspired by her own circumstances as an adopted child, Kate shows how the most remarkable adults have survived the experience of abandonment. Their tales can be heart-rending, yet also truly inspiring.

From the sometimes well-meaning attempts of foundling hospitals to the nightmare of Russian orphanages, every era and country has had its own answers to the problem. Too often they have been either inadequate or cruel. And yet, as many of the stories here show, it is possible to rise above even this least promising beginning. How far the existing laws reflect old-fashioned views on protecting and helping foundlings is something Kate Adie questions strongly.

From every perspective Kate Adie brings us a personal, moving and fascinating insight into this toughest of childhood experiences—and shows what makes us who we really are.

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About the Author: Kate Adie was born in Sunderland—or so her passport says—and brought up by adoptive parents. She is a winner of the Royal Television Society’s coveted “Reporter of the Year” award and presents the BBC’s From Our Own Correspondent programme. She is the author of a bestselling autobiography, The Kindness of Strangers, as well as a book on women and war, Corsets to Camouflage, and was awarded the OBE in 1993.

From the Publisher: The orphan trains stopped running in 1929 and the foster care system began. Hollywood relieved Depression-era problems on the subject with films starring Shirley Temple. Room for One More with Cary Grant depicted the need for foster families. Blossoms In the Dust starring Greer Garson dealt with the social stigma faced by both the parents and the children. Having immigrant parents in the mix added more problems. This was my family. We were a family torn apart as our parents fought to regain their children while the system held them hostage to the moral tenor of the times. Once the State took us a promise was made, a promise believed. Why, in the end, did we then feel twice abandoned, twice betrayed?

Largely autobiographical, this is a book about an unusual life. It begins and ends with Luke, the author’s son, adopted in Brazil in 1976. It addresses the distressing process of sub-fertility and the difficult and frustrating process of adoption in the U.K. and follows the author’s journey to Brazil and the subsequent and distinctly illegal adoption of her son Luke. It covers the instant motherhood experienced by the adoptive parent and the touching moment of bonding with the baby. It then goes back in time and traces the author’s working-class background and growing up in South East London during the war and evacuation. The subsequent breakdown of her marriage to her French husband, coping with single parenthood, alcoholism and the re-shaping of her life constitutes a major part of this book. In 1982, whilst living on a houseboat on the Thames with her son Luke, she followed a full-time Bachelor of Arts degree at Kingston Polytechnic. Island life on a houseboat at Hampton Court is fully explored and it was during these years that she met her current partner, professional musician Tony Bell. In 1998, they retired from London and led an idyllic life in the South of France until 2002 when she discovered a lump in her right breast. Eight years later following radiotherapy, surgery and anti-cancer medication, she is apparently cured. The final part of this book is “Luke’s story”; how he coped with the knowledge that he was an adopted third-world child, the breakdown of his parent’s marriage and their subsequent divorce and his mother’s cancer. About the Author: Born in South East London into a working-class docker’s family in 1935, Irene Kay was a “blitz kid” and spent the war years in five separate periods of evacuation. After leaving school in 1952, she worked in London as a secretary and in 1961 went to Paris where she lived with a French family as their Au Pair. In 1962, she met a young Frenchman in a Left Bank jazz club and they returned to England together in 1966. In March 1998, she took part in a Radio 2 program on the subject of “Motherhood,” her particular angle being that of the adoptive parent. As had always been her intention, in November 1998 she retired from her job in London and, with her partner of 26 years, returned to France to live permanently. She now lives in the South of France near Montpellier with her partner, a professional musician. Since being in France, she has written many articles for the English-language publications and, in 1999, had a regular twice-weekly column in the Midi Libre newspaper. She writes about local events, particularly music and the local British musicians. She is a regular contributor to the bi-monthly magazine Languedoc Sun. She also writes on the issues of integration into the French way of life and culture. She has one son, Luke, who lives in Kent and works at the University of Greenwich.

This is a book essentially about assimilation, about adapting to the language and nuances of new situations and the demands they make. It is based on a life full of an unusual number of challenges which required such adaptations. Gunter Helft is a retired priest whose life has consisted of a number of unusual ‘journeys’ and assimilations, any one of which would be considered remarkable. He was born in pre-Hitler Berlin in a Jewish family in which he was brought up as a Marxist atheist. He had no sense of Jewishness and his socialism has continued to be a guiding force throughout his life. He witnessed early Nazi atrocities and then came to England with his family at the age of 10 in 1933, without a word of English. Despite this, he went on to become secretary of the Debating society at his Grammar School in London. Sensitivity to the nuances of language has remained an important factor in his life. At the age of 20 he was told that he had been adopted at birth within his extended family, and the effects of the secrecy and the trauma of discovering the truth inform strong views on adoption and family relationships. He began a spiritual exploration of Judaism in adolescence, found it unfulfilling, came to Christianity through the evangelical tradition, discovered the more catholic strand of Anglicanism and its historic links with Christian socialism, was trained at Ely Theological College and ordained in 1948. Both before and since ordination his primary interest has been in education; his ministry began as chaplain/house master at a Home Office Approved School. He served on the staff of the Church of England Board of Education and became head teacher, first of a church comprehensive school in London and finally of one of the largest (non-church) comprehensives in the country. He also worked in the Missions to Seamen and served in Japan and at their London head office. In 1983 he was diagnosed with throat cancer, underwent a total laryngectomy and other surgery and mastered oesophageal speech, to exercise a full retirement ministry at the altar, in the pulpit, as chair of governors of a large school and in educational consultancy work. The early chapters of the book deal with family life, adoption, emigration, immigration and identity generally, under chapter headings ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’. The religious pilgrimage is described in the chapters ‘A non-Jewish Jew’, ‘Meeting Christianity’, ‘Finding a Theology’ and ‘Ordination and Ministry’, returning to the theme in the final chapter, with the contrasting title ‘A Jewish Christian’. The social and political theme is touched on throughout, but explored chiefly in the chapter ‘The Swinging Sixties and the swing back’. A section is devoted to the experience and interpretation of Cancer, and this is continued in a chapter entitled ‘Life After Laryngectomy’. More recently, he suffered a stroke which has caused severe mobility problems and he reflects on the effects of this on his and his wife’s life. There is also a section devoted to experience in, and thoughts about, education. (The author’s book about philosophy and leadership in comprehensive schools, From the Head Upwards, was published by Jon Carpenter in 2001) There is no doubt that Gunter Helft’s story is of wider interest than only to those who know him or of him. Adoption, immigration, religion, politics and cancer are not experiences often found within one person’s life, and those who have read the manuscript have declared themselves engrossed and enlightened.

From the Dust Jacket: On April 14, 1989, for reasons still debated today, Mexican immigrant Ramon Salcido went on a violent rampage in the idyllic Sonoma Valley wine country where he lived and worked. In the course of just two hours, he killed his wife, Angela, her two younger sisters, his mother-in-law, and the man with whom he suspected Angela was having an affair. He then slashed the throats of his three young daughters—four-year-old Sophia, three-year-old Carmina, and twenty-two-month-old Teresa—leaving them for dead in the county dump. A little more than a day later, the bodies of his daughters were discovered. Miraculously, tiny Carmina was still alive and able to tell her rescuers, “My daddy cut me.”

In Not Lost Forever, Carmina Salcido explores the events surrounding these headline-making murders with extraordinary clarity and composure. Reaching back to understand the events that traumatized her in childhood—and weaving them together with the recollections of detectives and witnesses—she reconstructs the story of her father’s crimes, and their aftermath, in sobering detail.

Yet Carmina’s story doesn’t end there. Those who remember her as the tiny victim of these murders will also be shocked by what followed: how she was adopted by a Catholic extremist family who tried to change her name and bury her past; how she tried to escape their sheltering influence by joining a Carmelite convent and then a ranch for troubled girls; and how the psychological trials she endured along the way nearly broke her spirit—until, at last, she found peace by turning to the one relative still alive to share her grief: her grandfather.

As a young woman, Carmina returned to California to share her experiences and discover the family that was brutally taken from her. The devout Catholic also returned to look into her father’s eyes on death row and confront the man who took away her entire family. With clear-eyed candor, courage, and grace, this brave young woman takes readers along on her miraculous journey of survival, discovery, and hope.

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About the Author: Carmina Salcido lives and works in Northern California.

Steve Jackson is a bestselling author who lives and works in Colorado.

“I despise you Judith Ann, I curse the day we adopted you and your brother! We owe you nothing because you are nothing,” said Mother as saliva pooled at the corners of her mouth. She began to recklessly punch her daughter about the face and head, that unprovoked outburst, resulted from nothing other than seeing her young seven-year-old daughter in “her” home. Exasperated as Mother was almost every single day. “Go ahead say it Judith Ann,” and with that my clue was given, “I know Mother, I know I deserve nothing because I am nothing, and I am worth even less than that.” I said it as vehemently as one tells a child they’re loved. My older adopted brother Jimmy, was in for it next. Although Mother never quite gave it to him in the same way. That didn’t mean Jim was off the hook, for that same evening Father would begin his violent alcohol induced rages that may land him bleeding and slumped in the corner of his own bedroom. That was only the beginning of that evening’s terror because on many nights, Father would come to me next... This was our life, for no more than after we were adopted as mere babies, Mother went on to have two biological children, her beloved son and daughter. The doctor’s admonition that conception would never occur, was certainly incorrect. Jim and I spent a lifetime paying for that physician’s transgression. Judy’s physical damage required over 10 surgeries to repair “years’ old” bodily damage discovered in early adulthood where doctor upon doctor inquired, “how did this happen, who did this to you!” Unfortunately for Jimmy, a once bright and gifted straight A student, life since age 18 has him confined to mental facilities/ group home settings, never having the ability to live on his own. This is due to Jim’s violent propensity to lash out in society, copying the abhorrent behavior Father unleashed at him for some thirteen plus years. If the emotional and physical torture went on through the children’s late teenage years, that would be tragic enough! However, what sets this story apart is Mother and Father’s extreme self-righteous belief that in exchange for adopting them, a lifetime of repayment is required. Well into adulthood, with a cult like prevailing attitude Judy seeks to constantly pay them back—physically, emotionally and monetarily. Yet it is never enough as her own Mother seeks to destroy her oldest daughter’s life. For these two children were despised, hated and came close to death throughout their lifetime, too many times to recall. For in this story—like no other out there, the age of adult children make no matter when parents want pay back for legally adopting. For nowhere will one find such a shocking look at an unbelievable attempt at survival. Not One of Them: A story of Adoption, Alcoholism and Abuse is the chilling true story of Judy Baldaccini, a little girl who went through hell, and not only survived, but became a stronger person because of it.

Not Remembered Never Forgotten is an examination of the resolution of an adoptee’s emotional memories and the search for the authentic self. Not knowing his name at birth, and barred by archaic secrecy laws that seal adoption records forever, the author searched back through fifty years of his past to find the truth that would redefine the essence of who he is. About the Author: Robert Allan Hafetz was born January 28, 1951, in the Door of Hope Salvation Army Booth Home, in Jersey City, New Jersey. In 1970 he started his career as a commercial photographer in New York City. A late in life graduate of Temple University, Bob was awarded a B.S. degree in Therapeutic Recreation, along with the Bill Dayton Award for working with the physically disabled. During the past ten years Bob has worked as an adjunctive therapist in the mental health system of Pennsylvania serving inpatient adults and adolescents in the residential treatment system. He has been married 32 years and has three children. He was wheelchair weightlifting coach for McGee Rehabilitation Hospital, and his team holds two world records in the Para-Olympics. He was also a trainer for their quadriplegic rugby team. Bob currently has been facilitating adoption workshops targeted to all members of the adoption society; Adoptees, bonded first mothers, fathers, adopting families, school educators, and adoption professionals. Bob serves on the New Jersey Coalition for Adoption Reform & Education (NJCARE) legislative team working to give adoptees access to their original birth certificates. An avid fisherman he returns often to the Jersey shore to fish for tuna, bluefish and striped bass.

Beaten Down, But Not Broken ... When writing about fifty years of any human life, one can only be humbled by the period of history through which so many of us survive. Life takes so many turns that the cultural changes, unfelt from day-to-day, feel like seismic shifts when surmised and stockpiled. Any man’s life is one that changes so much every year. You can go from looking in the mirror at someone you wish to grow old when you’re a teenager to wishing you were younger in a heartbeat. Some of the memories that you’ll read may strike you as unbelievable—they do to me recalling them. But no matter how thrilling, traumatic or incredible the events of my life have been, I have not “embellished or exaggerated” in any of the telling of these events. With my co-writer, I have constructed my memories which stands up to the time elapsed, even if sometimes my life has felt too fantastic to be real. In short, every word of what you’re about to read is the truth ... whether I wish it was or not.

From the Back Cover: When Nikki Stern left suburban Melbourne for Europe in the early 1980s, little did she know that her life was about to change dramatically.

Adopted into a well-connected family and educated at an exclusive school, she fell instantly and hopelessly in love with a charming and charismatic cartoonist in Amsterdam. Paul and Nikki embarked on a passionate love affair, enjoying the hedonistic days of the 1980s before eloping and returning to Australia.

But soon Nikki found herself in a world she never imagined. Descending into the depths of the sex industry—as a dominatrix, stripper, prostitute, and porn star—there was almost nothing she didn’t do. Despite a stormy marriage, she and Paul starred in and marketed their highly successful Horny Housewife X-rated videos as she became the queen of Australian erotica.

Leading a double life as a mother of three small children, Nikki struggled not merely with censorship but with child welfare authorities and the judgement of mainstream society.

In this extraordinary memoir, Nikki vividly recounts her intriguing past with emotional honesty and great insight, making it an unflinching and absorbing account of the incredible life of the Horny Housewife.

From the Dust Jacket: The legal crusade of Myra Clark Gaines (1804?-1885) has all the trappings of classic melodrama—a lost heir, a missing will, an illicit relationship, a questionable marriage, a bigamous husband, and a murder. For a half century the daughter of New Orleans millionaire Daniel Clark struggled to justify her claim to his enormous fortune in a case that captivated the nineteenth-century public, providing fodder for gossips, sensational headlines for newspapers, and employment for generations of lawyers. Elizabeth Urban Alexander taps voluminous court records and letters never before utilized by historians to unravel the twists and turns of Gaines’s litigation and reveal the truth behind the mysterious saga of this notorious woman.

When thirty-year-old Daniel Clark inherited his uncle’s vast property holdings in Louisiana, he found himself one of the richest men in North America. As he established himself in New Orleans in the early nineteenth century, he became romantically involved with Zulime Carrière, a young Frenchwoman of extraordinary beauty, vivacity, and charm. Their daughter, Myra, was raised by friends of Clark and kept ignorant of her real parentage until 1832, when she discovered her true lineage in letters among her foster father’s papers. She thereupon returned to Louisiana with tales of a lost will and a secret marriage between Clark and Carrière and claimed to be Clark’s missing heir. Was Myra the legitimate daughter of the prominent merchant or the “fruit of an adulterous union”? The courts would decide.

The Great Gaines Case wound its tortuous path through the United States legal system from 1834 until 1891, pursued even after Gaines’s death by lawyers trying to recoup fees. It was considered by the U.S. Supreme Court seventeen times. By courageously bringing her case to the courtroom and doggedly keeping it there, Alexander asserts, Gaines helped instigate a new type of family law that provided special protection to women, children, and marriages. Her lawyers skillfully wove together the strands of this emerging domestic relations law and the popularity of nineteenth-century sentimental fiction to fabricate a true-life romance, manipulating both the courtroom and public opinion with common stereotypes.

Though Gaines never recovered more than a tiny fraction of the rumored millions, this riveting chronicle of her struggle for legitimacy and legacy is a gold mine for anyone interested in legal history, women’s studies, or a good yarn superbly spun.

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About the Author: Elizabeth Urban Alexander is visiting assistant professor of history and interdisciplinary studies at Texas Wesleyan University.

From the Back Cover: Dreams Do Come True—An Abused Adopted Child Grabs the Brass Ring

As a seven-year-old Viemamese girl, Mary suffered an almost fatal bout of small pox in an uncanny twist of fate that changed her life forever. Entrusted to an American couple by her young mother, who was desperate to pull her from death’s door, Mary was taken to the United States after a traumatic farewell at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport. In the US, she experienced an abusive childhood filled with neglect and physical, as well as emotional, turmoil.

Shortly after arriving in the States, Mary overheard a conversation in which her adoptive father, Sam Mustard, learned that her mother was the victim of a bombing raid in Saigon during the Vietnam War. However, this was not true, and after almost three decades of tears and lost hope, the Red Cross successfully reunited mother and daughter—and did so without the aid of any legal documents concerning their whereabouts.

This is their story—an empowering testament to the courage, tenacity and determination of two phenomenal women: a mother who sacrificed parental love to give her daughter a better life and a daughter who desperately sought to recapture her lost identity.

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About the Author: Mary Mustard Reed, a graduate of California State University, Northridge, is a mother, a successful career woman in the pharmaceutical industry, and children’s rights advocate. She is part of a volunteer medical team working with organizations in her home country through Project Vietnam (www.projectvietnam.org).

“You are cordially invited to attend a private performance of A New Orleans Reunion, playing for a limited time only (10/6/07 to 10/7/07) at undisclosed locations (to be disclosed upon acceptance of invitation) in the French Quarter.” Amid the bright lights and thunderous applause, a masked performer will finally reveal herself to her birth mother and four half-sisters for the very first time-and behind closed curtains will finally, after years of wondering, reveal herself to the person in the mirror. Creatively crafted in a series of stage plays and commentaries, Ocultando No Mas / Hiding No More: Unmasking Adoption and Reunion is more than a first-person account of being solely an adoptee; it is ultimately an evolutionary journey toward connectedness and authenticity. About the Author: Denise M. Hoffman lives in New Orleans and is a personal trainer for a hospital-based fitness center. She holds a Master’s degree in natural health/wellness from Clayton College in Alabama, is a yoga enthusiast, and draws inspiration from nature (including, but not limited to, mystical Central American landscapes) to enhance her creative intuitiveness for writing. This is her first book—but not her last!

From the Back Cover: The story of Beverly who overcomes repeated abuses by the clergy, and the biological and adoptive family to eventually become her own hero.

As an adult she continues in the pattern of abusive relationships until she decides to become a psychologist and undergoes her own analysis. Although her story is intense, her sense of humor is interlaced throughout. She conquers her abuses to help those in similar situations gain through her experiences, education, tenacity and courage.

This is a message of hope—that even when you are born into a family ensnared in tangly, twisted roots—you can still find your wings. You can take flight and bring future generations with you.

Despite adversity Beverly realizes that each perilous situation led her to her happy existence of today. The truth indeed sets Beverly free.

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By the Same Author: The Bear Who Waited: A Tale for Children Who Wait to Be Adopted (2013).

A true story that could have been culled from the best of Chandler or Ellroy, Of Unknown Origin is about a woman insistent on re-claiming her family history and her own identity, however terrifying the consequences may be.

Debra Levi Holtz’s attempts to locate her birth mother are riddled with veiled threats and dead ends. The truth about Debbie’s mother is inextricably linked to the buried history of her adoptive father, Jewish mobster Manny Skar, who was gunned down in front of their apartment building when Debbie was still a child. Debbie uses her reporting skills to unearth newspaper accounts of arrests, murders, and a mysteriously funded Vegas-style hotel.

As she perseveres past lost files and misinformation, a picture emerges of the woman who handed her out a car window 35 years earlier—a selfish, coldly “rational” Ayn Rand devotee whose shady associations and intimidating presence recall Manny Skar.

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About the Author: Debra Levi Holtz was born and raised in Chicago. She graduated from Northwestern University with an MA in journalism and worked until recently as a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. She regularly attends ALMA (Adoptee’s Liberty Movement Association) meetings in Oakland, CA, where she resides. This is her first book.

One evening in 1952, a young woman walked down to the Mekong River carrying her baby boy in a homemade basket. She lit a candle and stood it in the basket, then set her baby adrift on the stream. Miraculously, the child was rescued by a fisherman and taken to a Catholic mission on the island of Cu Lao Gieng. The little boy was named Ty, meaning “billion,” because his chances of surviving were a billion to one. This is the story of that one-in-a-billion chance.

Twelve-year-old Paula Kyle was still mourning the death of her mother a little over a year before when, in 1974, she found herself riding down the road in a stranger’s car to another stranger’s house. Freshly torn from the arms of her sisters, she was now heading for a place called a foster home. Anything would have to be better than the past year with what she had endured with her stepmother, Lynn. In this memoir, Kyle narrates the story of her life before, during, and after her placement in foster care—her turbulent beginnings as an army brat, being shuttled from base to base along with her siblings; the trauma and heartache of losing her mother at the age of eleven and the horrors that followed; living in seven foster homes; and eventually becoming the confident and charismatic woman she is today. Heartrending and brutally honest, On the Edge of Unthinkable provides insight into the foster care system and affirms that it’s possible to change the lives of children who have fallen through the cracks. Kyle demonstrates that it truly does take a community to raise a child.

A primal scream erupted in the Charity Ward of Providence Hospital, Washington., DC, on September __, 1945. Crying out for Mother, Baby, 6lb., 2oz., felt her loving grip only moments after birth and then sensed a struggle as those same, gentle hands would NOT let go. A white-uniformed nurse intervened. Baby’s bassinet was wheeled away once the hospital staff washed away her birth blood. She was given the name, Judith, the one to appear on her original birth certificate. The significance of this choice would be revealed to Mary 43 years later, February, 1988. The tag on her tiny bed had read: Charity Ward, bottle feed, no contact with Mother. On September 27 this newborn and her mother left the hospital, but separately. Judith, now renamed Mary, would soon experience, as early as age three, all the adoptive family members’, friends’, and teachers’ unrelenting questions: “My, where did those huge, dark brown eyes come from? The olive skin? And, who is your real mother?” Not one of them knew about “Mother Armenia,” or how this baby’s surname connected to one of the oldest-known civilizations on Earth. History would dictate that this newborn would be the very last one to inherit both the Movsisian name from a region half-way across the planet Earth, and the nearly extinct, female mitochondrial DNA from Grandmother, Yeghsapert Movsisian. Mary’s grandparents, uncle, and two cousins were the sole surviving family members from the Armenian Genocide, the area of the worst destruction being their village: Nor Kegh, Charsandjak, Kharpert, located in the Euphrates River Valley. This Cradle of Civilization area suffered the ruin of businesses, churches, homes, and the slaughter of the Armenians. Targeted by the Turks, it included the largest number of educated, wealthy Armenians, all of whom had national pride. Each step these brave people took on their escape route to freedom, that which was aided by the Kurds, then the Greeks, gave Mary and her descendants, yet unborn, one more day to live on Earth. Grandfather had come in 1912, three years before the date when the massacres were heightened. Manoog Movsisian and 3 other Armenian immigrant men soon founded the very first Armenian Apostolic Church (Christian) in the Midwest. Located in the West Pullman area of Chicago, Illinois, Holy Savior Armenian Apostolic Church was consecrated on October 26, 1924. Mary’s grandfather, their first choir director, had the voice of an angel. Once Mary’s grandmother survived the grueling journey from her homeland on the escape routes, she settled in Cherbourg, France, with her surviving son, Korean. In 1921, at age of nine, both he and Grandmother emigrated to the U.S.A. They were soon reunited with Grandfather, Three more children were born: Mother, another Uncle, and Aunt. Fate would gift to Mary’s older, tough and smart uncle, attorney Korean Movsisian, the honor of pleading two cases for the U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, D.C. Mary’s destiny for the first 39 years of her life would be to wear the cloak of secrecy, an enigma, re: Mother’s and Father’s identities. Her birth records had been kept under permanent, court seal in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville, Maryland. Falsified, then issued over 25 months following her date of birth, this certificate now listed her parents as David D. and Eathel G. McCALLUM Letts. Mary, now 38, learned about her inherited gifts: membership in one of the oldest civilizations on Earth, the first to accept Christianity in 301 A.D. This defined the earliest, colonial settlers from the British Isles, soon owners of huge plantations in Maryland and Virginia. She researched five indirect family-line Mayflower passengers, 16 presidential lines, and 16 founding fathers’ lines. But, how did Mary solve the remaining mystery re: why was she given up for adoption? Who found “the letter,” boxed and in mint condition, well-hidden for 42 years, along with the original envelope? What did the letter reveal? Who had hidden it and why?

From the Dust Jacket: On the Outside Looking In is the poignant, moving, emotion-filled story of Michael Reagan, the President’s oldest son. Adopted at birth by Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, Michael Reagan appeared to have everything going for him as a child of one of Hollywood’s leading men and an academyaward winning actress. Surrounded by movie stars and a life of luxury, the world could have been his for the taking. But his parents’ divorce when he was only three, and the revelation shortly thereafter that he was adopted, plunged Michael into an abyss of despair. Tormented by misconceptions about his adoption, boarded out at school when he entered first grade, seeing his parents on television or in the movies more often than in person, and with no one to talk to, Michael has carried a tragic secret with him all his life.

Here, in On the Outside Looking In, he unburdens himself at long last. He tells about his very special love for his father; gives us a candid, off-screen look at his mother, Jane Wyman; and reveals the truth about his relationships with his sister, Maureen, and his step-mother, First Lady Nancy Reagan. From the glamour of Hollywood to the brink of bankruptcy; from the drudgery of the campaign trail to the thrill of inauguration, from the Governor’s Mansion to The White House, Michael Reagan has lived a life of fear and self-punishment.

Now, for the very first time, Michael opens his heart, letting us share the tears, the pain, and the agony—as well as the joy and pride—of being part of America’s most special family, of growing up On the Outside Looking In.

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By the Same Author: Twice Adopted (with Jim Denney) (2004, Broadman & Holman).

From the Publisher: This book speaks with unique power and intimacy to the millions of people across North America who, directly or indirectly, have had their lives touched by the adoption process. Here are the moving stories, taken from actual case histories, of adoptees who have tried to uncover a hidden past; of birth parents discovered by sons or daughters they had given up for adoption years before; and of adoptive parents who must cope with feelings of rejection, jealousy and bewilderment.

From the Back Cover: A testament to the more than 100,000 Korean adoptees who have come to the United States since the 1950s, this collection of oral histories features the stories of nine Korean Americans who were adopted as children and the struggles they’ve shared as foreigners in their native lands. From their early confrontations with racism and xenophobia to their later-in-life trips back to Korea to find their roots (with mixed results), these narratives illustrate the wide variety of ways in which all adoptive parents and adoptees—not just those from Korea—must struggle with issues of identity, alienation, and family.

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About the Author: Ellen Lee is a licensed clinical social worker. She lives in Chevy Chase, MD.

Marilyn Lammert is a psychotherapist. She lives in Bethesda, MD.

Mary Anne Hess is a freelance writer and editor who specializes in education and family issues. She lives in Silver Spring, MD.

This is an autobiographical story of one woman’s journey of self discovery. The main character is an adoptee, having been adopted at birth; a theme that is woven throughout the story and follows the effect adoption has on a person throughout the course of a lifetime. The book takes you on a roller coaster ride from the height of success in the modeling world to the despair of being a battered wife. Along the way amazing characters are there to guide and alter her life. Dive into this very honest portrayal by the author that comes full circle as the reader experiences the miracle with her as she finally finds her way home. About the Author: Nicole Vehorn Holmquist was born in Charleston, SC, and raised in Greenville County, SC. She currently lives with her husband and children in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California.